Ebrahim Hegazy, a Bug Bounty Hunter from Egypt, has identified a security vulnerability that allowed him to hack Microsoft, Yahoo and Orange.

While he is on the hunt for a security bug in Yahoo domains, he found a web page that allowed him to upload .aspx file and modify the existing aspx files.

You can just create a new file by sending POST request to the URL " http://mx.horoscopo.yahoo.net/ymx/editor/inc/GenerateFile.aspx" with the following post content: "FileName=New_File_Name.aspx&FileContent=File_Content_Here".

Ebrahim has simply uploaded a file called 'zigoo.aspx' with 'zigoo' as content. To find out other Yahoo domains that were affected by the same vulnerability, researcher did a Bing search.

The following domains were also affected by this bug: **.horoscopo.yahoo.net, astrocentro.latino.msn.com, horoscopo.es.msn.com, astrologia.latino.msn.com, horoscopos.prodigy.msn.com and astrocentro.mujer.orange.es.

Interesting fact about this vulnerability is that the page created in Yahoo domain reflected in other domains also.

"It’s A CDN(Content Delivery Network) Service for astrology that cashes the same content to render it for the sub domains of that mentioned vulnerable domains, So all files on one domain will be shown on all other domains on the server." Researcher says.

After reporting to Yahoo, Yahoo has rewarded the researcher with some bounty. As usual, Microsoft didn't give any reward to the researcher.

Earlier this year, Ebrahim discovered a critical Remote PHP Code Injection vulnerability in one of the Yahoo domains.

A Web application penetration tester, Ebrahim Hegazy, has discovered a critical remote PHP code injection vulnerability in the Yahoo website that could allowed hackers to inject and execute any php code on the Yahoo server.

The vulnerability exists in the Taiwan sub-domain of the Yahoo "
http://tw.user.mall.yahoo.com/rating/list?sid=[CODE_Injection]". The 'sid' parameter allows to inject PHP code.

According to his blog post, the sid parameter might have been directly passed to an eval() function that results in the code Injection.

In his demo, Ebrahim showed how he to get the directories list and process list by injecting the following code:
http://tw.user.mall.yahoo.com/rating/list?sid=${@print(system(“dir”))}
http://tw.user.mall.yahoo.com/rating/list?sid=${@print(system(“ps”))}

He also found out that Yahoo server is using an outdated kernel which is vulnerable to "Local Privilege escalation" vulnerability.

Yahoo immediately fixed the issue after getting the notification from the researcher. However, he is still waiting for the Bug bounty reward for the bug. Google pays $20,000 for such kind of vulnerabilities. Yahoo sets the maximum bounty amount as "$15,000". Let us see how much bounty Yahoo offers for this vulnerability.

Here comes a critical bug discovered in Facebook and biggest bounty ever paid by Facebook for reporting vulnerability in their website.

Reginaldo Silva, A Brazilian Hacker, has discovered a highly critical Remote Code Execution(RCE) vulnerability in the Facebook which could allowed attackers to read any files from the server. It could also allowed attackers to run malicious code in the server.

In September 2012, he first discovered XML External Entity Expansion bug in the Drupal that handled OpenID. OpenID is an open technology that allows users to authenticate to websites without having to create a new password.

He found similar bug affecting the Google's App Engine and Blogger. However, it is not critical as he wasn't able to access the arbitrary file or open network connections, he received $500 reward from Google.

He found out plenty of other websites implementing OpenID are vulnerable to RCE.

Recently, Silva learned that "facebook forgot password" page is also using OpenID provider to verify the identity of the user. He managed to discover the XXE bug in Facebook that allowed him to read the "etc/passwd" file from the server.

"Since I didn't want to cause the wrong impressions, I decided I would report the bug right away, ask for permission to try to escalate it to a RCE and then work on it while it was being fixed." Silva wrote in his blog.

He thought it will take time to fix the bug. However, the facebook security team responded quickly and fixed issue within 3.5 hours.

"I decided to tell the security team what I'd do to escalate my access and trust them to be honest when they tested to see if the attack I had in my mind worked or not. I'm glad I did that. After a few back and forth emails, the security team confirmed that my attack was sound and that I had indeed found a RCE affecting their servers." silva said.

David Vieira-Kurz, a Security researcher from Germany, has discovered an interesting Remote Code execution vulnerability in the eBay website.

The 'q' parameter in the 'search' page of South Asian Ebay domain (sea.ebay.com/search/?q=david&catidd=1) is found to be vulnerable to remote code execution.

The researcher cleverly managed to pass the 'q' parameter as array with a command that successfully got executed.

Proof of concept provided by the researcher prints the information about the PHP running on the server: sea.ebay.com/search/?q[0]=david&q[1]=sec{${phpinfo()}}&catidd=1

An attacker could have exploited this vulnerability to run OS commands and managed to compromise the entire server. However, David reported about this vulnerability to eBay security team, the vulnerability has been fixed now.

He also discovered a SQL Injection vulnerability in the same domain last year.

Arul Kumar, a bug hunter from TamilNadu,India who recently got $12,500 as bounty from Facebook, has today shared how he managed to identify multiple open url redirection vulnerabilities in Facebook.

He identified three open url redirection vulnerabilities in the facebook's dialogs, it could be exploitable to all users who are signed into facebook.

At first, facebook team rejected his finding because it needs some user interaction- users should click ok button in order to redirect the target website.

However, Arul managed to bypass it and redirect to the target website without user interaction. The facebook team accepted the vulnerability after bypassing the user interaction and offered $1500 bounty.

Just a few weeks ago Nir Goldshlager released a OAuth vulnerability on Facebook. A security researcher Amine Cherrai has also found similar vulnerability on facebook that allowed hackers to get the access_token and full permissions of any account on facebook.

"As you may know, last month Facebook has closed many bugs leading to security reinforcement of 'redirect_uri' parameter and prevent hijacking attacks. One of these reinforcement were rejecting all 'redirect_uri' that has '#' or '#!'." Researcher wrote in his blog.

"While I was looking in the Facebook Javascript SDK I found something
strange, I found that it uses http://static.ak.facebook.com/connect/xd_arbiter.php?version=21#channel=f876ddf24&origin=http://localhost&channel_path=/oauth/PoC_js/?fb_xd_fragment#xd_sig=f3adf0e04c&&#8221;
as aredirect_uri and it’s not rejected… So I said let’s use it too!!!"

Amine successfully generated a poc that redirects to another facebook page with the access token. But he faced some problem while redirecting to external website.

Nir Goldshlager helped Amine by suggesting to redirect to an application in facebook then the application redirects to an external website instead of redirecting directly to an external website. After following the instructions from Nir Goldshlager, he successfully manged to generate a final redirect_uri.

POC video

Facebook has learnt from its previous lessons and is now fixing vulnerabilities as soon as somebody reports them,this Vulnerability has already been fixed.

Hello E Hackers, today E Hacking News interviewed One of the Best Bug Bounty hunters, Vignesh Kumar, who got listed on all Hall of Fame pages that includes Google, Twitter and rewarded by lot of companies for his findings.1. Introduce yourself
Hi, I am Vignesh Kumar from TamilNadu, INDIA. I hold a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and in addition an Information Security Enthusiast, budding Bug Bounty Hunter.2. You are an Electrical Engineer, How did you get interest in Information security field?
Yes, I am. But I am more obsessed with Electronics and Networking. Also I have a huge passion for Information security too. I was introduced and inspired into "Bug Bounty Hunting" by one of my close friend Ahamed Nafeez(@skeptic_fx).

3. When did you start Bug hunting?
Around 5 months ago. But started in full swing from the last 3 months. 4. I have seen your name in lots of Hall of Fame, I am really proud to have you as my friend. How did your Parents/Friends react when you got rewards?
Thank you so much for your compliments. At the outset, I would like to thank my Family and all my Friends for all their support and encouragement. Well, when i received my first Bug Bounty (Cash reward), I told my friends about it and they looked at me like I was a Cyber Criminal. After I explained about “Bug Bounty Program” to them with “Proof of Concept”, I could see smiley faces. . No wonder!! Even many IT Geeks aren’t aware of the term “Bug Bounty”. Awareness is necessary.

5. What vulnerabilities have you discovered so far in your career as a Bug Hunter?
The vulnerabilities categorized by The OWASP Foundation.

6. What is your first finding, how did you feel at that time?
I can barely remember the exact first one. But whatever it was, it really had driven me to dig more deeply into it. 7. What is the favorite vulnerability found by you?
Each and every one of the vulnerabilities I found in Top Ranked Sites which includes Facebook, Twitter, is my favorite. As you know, finding bugs in Top Internet Giant sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter would be really hard in upcoming days since thousands of researchers are into it. I would like to rephrase a nice quote said by some researchers. “Not only Ninja Skills, but also you must have an Eagle Eye to hunt for Bugs”. Well said. 8. You're hunting bugs for fun, for profit?
Actually, bit of both. Beyond those you could gain more knowledge from around and develop your own skill set which is primary. Also I am glad that I have earned good friends around the world from this Bug Bounty program.

9. What are your future plans? Electrical Engineer or Information Security Researcher?
Obviously, Electrical/Network Engineer it is. And I believe I have the potential to handle multitasks. So I would continue my InfoSec Research too, either as an Independent or as a Team.

10. What is your advice for new bug hunters?
Well, that question is for Experts which I am not. I am a Beginner too. But from my experience, I may have few things. “Bug Bounty Hunting” is totally competitive. You shouldn’t jump into this one just by aiming on money. Have thirst of gaining knowledge which will fetch you HOFs, money and all. Don’t feel depressed when you fail for the first few times. Learn to the core and keep hunting which will definitely fetch you the rewards. Follow the InfoSec experts in Twitter /Facebook and try learning new hunting methodologies from their personal blog. Moreover, patience is highly recommended if you are a beginner. Once you jump in, you will get used to it. 11. What do you think about E Hacking News?
E Hacking News (EHN) is doing a great job and it is one of the Best IT Security/Hacking News Portal I have ever come across. I must appreciate your efforts in bringing up the real news on IT Security from around the world to all the Readers. Also must mention BreakTheSecurity.com which is with a hand full of Tutorials on Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking for Beginners. Kudos to your efforts!! I would suggest continuing the publication of monthly Security Magazine from EHackerNews.

12. Is there anything else you want to add?
Nothing else I have. I wish all Bug Hunters very Good Luck for their hunting and have a bright future. Thank you, Mr.Sabari Selvan for this opportunity to share my experience with all. Thanks everyone!!

Today, E Hacking News interviewed a Security Researcher and Famous Bug Hunter Rafay Baloch who got listed on a number of Hall of fame and received rewards from Google, PayPal, Nokia and more companies which conduct Bug Bounty programs.

1. Introduce yourself

Well, Name is "Rafay Baloch", I am the admin of http://rafayhackingarticles.net, My primary interests include Security Research, Penetration Testing and Blogging. Right now i am doing my bacehlors in computer science from Bahria University karachi.

2. How did you get into Information security field?

Well, From my childhood days i was interested in Information security, however if you are asking about the serious part, it has been around 3 years. Since I have started researching in this field.

3. When did you start Bug hunting?

I started bug hunting at the end of July 2012, when I saw Microsoft's resposnible disclosure page, that's where i started hunting bug.

4. What vulnerabilities have you discovered so far in your career as a Bug Hunter?

There are so many i cannot remember as i hunt for them every day, Almost all vulnerability types related to web application security i.e. RCE, LCE, RFI, LFI, Arbitary file upload, SQL Injection, XSS etc.

Usually, i find zero days and keep it private for testing purposes, however, i do release some of them periodically, you can check out my packet storm profile.

5. What is your first finding , how did you feel at that time?

I really don't remember, but my first big finding was an XSS vulnerability inside Microsoft India. I also reported Http parameter pollution vulnerability along with it.

6.What is the favorite vulnerability found by you?

My favorite vulnerability was a the remote code execution vulnerability i found last year inside paypal, i had access to very sensitive stuff, the paypal subdomain was behind a JBOSS server, I was able to bypass the authentication and upload my backdoor to execute commmands, Paypal paid me 10,000$ for it, though if i had found it inside Google they would have payed me 20,000$.

Along with it they offered me a job as a senior security Pentester. I was not able to go there due to my studies as i mentioned before that i am still doing bachelors.

7. How much have you earned so far from Bug hunting?

I would prefer to keep it confidential. But it's some where between 5 digits.

8. You're hunting bugs for fun, for profit, or to make the world a safer place?

Well, honestly, Little of every thing, First of all, I don't only hunt vulnerabilites on websites having bug bounty programs, I also report to websites that do not have them. Some to get listed in responsible disclosures and ofcourse to make the world a better place.

9.What is your future plans?

I am currently working on http://services.rafayhackingarticles.net, where i would be launching my own Penetration Testing company, along with it, I would be soon conducting some workshops related to Ethical hacking and Penetration testing, From educational perspective, i am planning to give my CCNP Switch paper this month.

10. What is your advice for new bug hunters?

For new bug hunters, i would say that the competition now is very high, almost every site having a bug bounty program has been researched by lots of researchers, so therefore you won't be lucky with tools automated tools like acunetix, netsparker. Therefore, try to look for the acquisitions and subdomains and go into places where no one has probably been before and try to do some unexpected things. You would have much much more chances of

11. What do you think about E Hacking News?

E Hacking News brings up with good content, however, what i would suggest you is to be more frequent with the website, it seems that you are alone doing the work, Any successful news website would have tons of authors to write the content, In this way, more people would subscribe to you.

12. Thanks for the advice , Is there anything else you want to add?

Just one thing that lots of companies have came up with responsible disclosures and hall of fames attracting security researchers to look at their websites for free, however, this would be decreasing the scope of Paid Penetration tests hence it would de-value it. Hence, i think we should all come up with a thing called "No-FREE BUGS".